SEB step up measures to minimise future major outages

May 24, 2017

Menara Sarawak Energy

KUCHING: Sarawak Energy Berhad stepped up measures to manage its transmission lines to minimise risk of major outages.

Sarawak Energy Group Chief Operating Officer Lu Yew Hung in a statement today said, the 500kV second transmission line will strengthen reliability of electricity supply to the Central and Western regions by providing additional circuits parallel to the existing 275kV transmission line connecting major power stations to load centres in southern Sarawak.

“For areas such as Miri in the northern region, several measures to strengthen reliability have been undertaken including investing in additional injection points from Similajau to Bunut to Marudi junction,” said Lu.

Two separate power trips along the Kemena-Bintulu and Similajau-Tudan transmission lines caused power supply outages in Miri, Sri Aman and some parts of Kuching today.

At 12.45pm, the Kemena-Bintulu transmission lines tripped in preventing further trips and overload, SEB’s automatic defence system for southern Sarawak kicked in immediately with load shedding to some affected areas in Kuching and Sri Aman helping to minimise the impact of the outage, lessening disruption time and maintaining supply to critical facilities such as the airport and hospitals.

“The line was re-energised at 1.10pm with full restoration achieved by 3.10pm,” said Lu.

The northern region was affected separately when a double tripping occurred at 4.12pm along the Similajau-Tudan transmission line affecting Miri for a short while with the line re-energised at 4.21pm. Full restoration for Miri was achieved by late afternoon.

Earlier today at 8.35am, some parts of Miri also experienced power interruption due to a fault at the overhead power lines supplying Canada Hill, Hospital Road, Jalan Cahaya and part of Padang Kerbau.

Supply to these affected areas was fully restored by 3pm following completion of repair works.

Sarawak Energy was able to improve recovery time in these incidents due to several system-strengthening modifications following recommendations from an international consultant after the November 2016 outage.

“SEB regrets the inconvenience experience but until the completion of the 500kV Second Transmission Line, the risk of major outages involving our transmission lines remains,” Lu added. – dayakdaily.com

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